Orwell Prize

The Orwell Prize "is the pre-eminent British prize for political writing. There are two annual awards: a Book Prize and a Journalism Prize. They are awarded to the book, and for the journalism, which is judged to have best achieved George Orwell’s aim to ‘make political writing into an art’. Homage to Catalonia, Down and Out in Paris and London, The Road to Wigan Pier, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Animal Farm and Orwell’s incomparable essays still resonate around the world as peerless examples of courageous independence of mind, steely analysis and beautiful writing."

"In 1993, Bernard Crick (through his long connection with The Political Quarterly) had negotiated with them a guarantee of additional funding to launch and administer two annual Orwell Prizes for political writing, one for a book and one for journalism. The first prizes were awarded to Neal Ascherson for journalism and to Anatol Lieven for his book, The Baltic Revolution, while the first two annual judges were Barbara Hardy and John Keane (Crick was presiding judge each year until the 2006 Prize).

"With the growing reputation of the prize, Reuters in 2004 began to sponsor the prize giving. The prize is now recognised as the pre-eminent British award for political writing."

Trustees
Accessed May 2008:
 * Jean Seaton – Professor of Media History, University of Westminster
 * D. J. Taylor – Critic, reviewer, novelist, Orwell biographer
 * Bernard Crick – Emeritus Professor, Birkbeck College, London
 * 2004: *[[Richard Blair – Adopted son, George Orwell
 * Bill Hamilton – Literary Agent, A. M. Heath
 * Barbara Hardy – Senior Fellow, British Academy
 * Eric Hobsbawm – Professor Emeritus, University of London
 * Blake Morrison – Professor of Creative Writing, Goldsmiths College, London
 * Andrew O'Hagan - Contributing Editor, London Review of Books, Granta
 * Alan Plater
 * Polly Toynbee
 * Marina Warner

Books

 * 2008: Raja Shehadeh – Palestinian Walks: Notes on a Vanishing Landscape
 * 2007: Peter Hennessy – Having It So Good: Britain in the Fifties
 * 2006: Delia Jarrett-Macauley – Moses, Citizen & Me
 * 2001: Michael Ignatieff – Virtual War

Journalists

 * 2008: Johann Hari – The Independent
 * 2007: Peter Beaumont – The Observer, Foreign Editor
 * 2006: Timothy Garton-Ash – The Guardian
 * 2005: Matthew Parris – The Times
 * 2004: Vanora Bennett – The Times
 * 2003: Brian Sewell – Evening Standard
 * 2002: Yasmin Alibhai-Brown – The Independent
 * 2001: David Aaronovitch – The Independent
 * 2000: David McKittrick – The Independent
 * 1999: Robert Fisk – The Independent
 * 1998: Polly Toynbee – The Independent
 * 1997: Ian Bell – The Scotsman
 * 1996: Melanie Phillips – The Observer
 * 1995: Paul Foot and Tim Laxton – Journalism
 * 1994: Neal Ascherson – The Independent on Sunday

Contact

 * Web: http://www.theorwellprize.co.uk